Australian terror plot 4th suspect in court

By Jill Fraser

MELBOURNE, Australia (AA) - A 22-year-old man has joined his brother and two other men in custody following massive police raids that allegedly thwarted a Daesh-inspired “multi-mode” terror attack planned for the Christmas holiday.

Police allege the men were hatching a Daesh-inspired plot targeting three of Melbourne’s landmark buildings.

Ibrahim Abbas fronted the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Saturday morning charged with preparing or planning a terrorist act.

The Herald Sun reports that the 22-year-old had a black eye, which his lawyer said had been sustained during the police raids Friday morning.

Abbas' 21-year-old brother, Hamza, along with Ahmed Mohamed, 24, and 26-year-old Abdullah Chaarani appeared before court Friday and were also charged with preparing or planning a terrorist act.

All four men have been remanded into custody to reappear in court in April.

Fairfax reports that the Abbas brothers are understood to have been on the radar of authorities, including the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), for about two years after their home was raided following social media posts.

Seven people were arrested in the multiple terror raids across Melbourne on Friday.

A 20-year-old woman and a 26-year-old man from Meadow Heights, and 21-year-old man from Gladstone Park, were subsequently released without charge.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called it "one of the most substantial terrorist plots that have been disrupted over the last several years".

The Herald Sun reports that a suicide bombing was allegedly part of the terror plot.

Police maintain that this particular threat has passed, but they're stepping up security at key locations in Melbourne over the Christmas holiday weekend.

At a press conference Saturday morning, Victoria state’s premier, Daniel Andrews, spoke of a "significant increase" in police patrolling key sites in Melbourne over Christmas and New Year.

Andrews stressed that the terror threat had been “contained”.

Police Commissioner Graham Ashton, who joined Andrews at the press conference Saturday, said there would be a significant and visible increase of police numbers during the Christmas and New Year period.

The Federation of Islamic Councils condemned the alleged plot.

"We are literally sick and tired of some young people in our community seeking to terrorise other people and trying to blame that on religion," its president, Keyser Trad, told the ABC.

"Religion is innocent of all these nefarious plots and what these people are planning is an outright criminal activity that the religion of Islam is the first and the quickest to condemn."

Andrews referred to the alleged terror plot as an “evil”, “criminal” act, “nothing more and nothing less".